Witnesses during the five-day trial included three men who have pleaded guilty to attempted sexual battery on the same victim. One, Marcos Joel Hernandez, 20, took a 10-year plea deal.

The girl, who met Hernandez at church, considered him her boyfriend.

The teenager testified that she visited him at his job detailing vehicles at Southside Dodge on Orange Blossom Trail on July 9, 1998.

She said she was forced to have sex in a van with Hernandez, fellow employee Jose Augusto Brens, 19, and Perez, who was a manager. Afterward, she said, she was told she had to perform oral sex on another man, Daniel Luis Ferrer, 20, or the men would not drive her home.

Hernandez, Brens and Ferrer admitted having sex with the teenager, but they said the acts were consentual. In Florida, children younger than 16 cannot legally consent to sex.

Perez, the father of a 7-month-old girl, testified that he never touched the girl.

For the first time this week, Hernandez said a man named Fernando was at the auto dealership the day of the rape. Nichola said the girl got Fernando mixed up with Perez because the two men resemble each other.

Kaney refused Nichola's request to allow Perez to remain free until he is sentenced. A court deputy led him away in handcuffs as his family watched.